Douglas Craig Pence passed away peacefully on July 18, 2026 at 6:09 am. He was 70 years old and a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Doug was born June 22, 1956, on Mare Island, in Vallejo, CA. Parents were Dallas Thurston Pence and Mary Virginia Pence. His Father, a lieutenant submariner, was on WestPac and didn't see Doug until he was 6 months old. His mom headed back to Twin Falls, Idaho during this time.

When his dad returned from active duty, they moved to Palo Alto, California where his dad was working on his PhD at Stanford. His brother Mitch became his wingman at a very early age. His younger brother, Greg, was born a few years later.

Doug loved to tell stories, and this was one of his favorites. Back then, Fire alarms were placed on poles in neighborhoods, not in homes. One day Doug and Mitch pushed their Red Flyer wagon out to the fire alarm pole, stacking books from the house in the wagon so Doug could reach the alarm. Once Doug pulled the handle, (like he had seen other men in the neighborhood do) they sat down in the wagon and waited for the show to start. Soon the trucks arrived with lights flashing and the alarms blaring to see two little boys sitting in a Red Flyer wagon, hands up to their ears because the sirens were so loud. As Doug tells it, "We were so excited, and quite proud of ourselves". The firemen were not as happy!

Around 1961, Doug and his family moved to Idaho Falls, ID, a small city that straddled the Snake River, and to the west of Targhee and the Grand Tetons. His dad worked at Phillips Petroleum on their Nuclear Safety Program.

In 1962, Doug was enrolled in the local grade school, Templeview Elementary. He only remembers one time getting in trouble there. Each time there was fresh snow, the brave kids engaged in "Hooky-Bobbing", which is the process of running up to the back of a car or bus when they are stopped at a Stop sign and grabbing the back bumper, hanging on for dear life and sliding behind the car/bus in the snow and ice. A successful run would take you all the way to school, where you would let go of the car/bus just before arrival so you would hopefully not be identified by teachers or school officials. Of course, maybe it wasn't too scary to be doing this when your other sport was downhill skiing in some of the most beautiful mountains nearby.

Doug and his brothers were taught early about guns and gun safety. They hunted a lot and ate everything they caught. His mom got very good at cooking whatever was brought to the table that afternoon.

Doug's first pet was Skeeter, a Springer Spaniel puppy and he was responsible for his care. Skeeter turned out to be a great hunting dog. He simply would not return without the catch, even if he had to jump in freezing water to get it. Doug also brought home a variety of animals, turtles, frogs, and snakes, much to his mom's chagrin.

They moved to the country a few years later. He was able to get involved with a stable there and learned to ride and take care of horses. The owners of the stable had a 9-year-old bay mare named Blaze that they sold to Doug for $75.00. Doug and Blaze rode everywhere, participated in 4H, and even won 2 first place ribbons.

When he was 12, Doug's first job was moving irrigation pipes. He needed the money for the care of his horse. He was paid 10 cents per line of pipe moved. I'm not kidding about this fact, when Doug needed transportation to the fields, his dad got him an old used Bridgestone 90, even though he wasn't eligible for a driver's license yet. In the country a lot of kids did this.

His teenage years were largely spent trying out the "juvenile delinquent" role. Most of his activities were centered around exploring mostly harmless "crimes" looking for excitement! One of these was hopping on the freight train leading out of town with his partner in crime, Stewart. They hopped off in the next town and hitchhiked back home.

In the state of Idaho, you were able to get a driver's license at age 14, and Doug did everything you had to do to get that on his 14th birthday. Later he attended a police auction and purchased an old 1962 Chrysler 300 for $35.00. They towed the car to a friend's barn and got it running.

He gave Blaze to Mitch.

He went to Skyline High School from 1971-1974, which had a "modular schedule" that allowed students to plan their classes around the schedules or chores at home. Doug loaded up on every class possible, and passed them all, although the grades were not exactly stellar as his attention at this point was on cars and girls. He completed so many classes that for the next two years all he had to take was American Government, American History, and Physical Education (PE).

He began working at the local Ramada Inn as a busboy, Minimum wage was $1.15 per hour. Anytime they asked him to branch out he did and at one point they asked him if we wanted to be the assistant chef, so at age 14 he learned how to cut steaks, cook prime rib, make sauces and gravies, anything a fine dining restaurant offered. That came with a nice raise!

Doug loved cruising the strip, and street racing on Friday and Saturday night. His Chevy turned out to be too heavy to race, so he found a 1971 Dodge Demon. It had a Mopar powered 340 in it, and it was both light and VERY quick. The speedometer went to 150. He loved the speed and was seriously thinking of becoming a NASCAR driver. Note: He did get a chance to drive an actual NASCAR about 10 years ago at a racetrack in Los Angeles. Many of you probably have seen that picture on his Facebook. His love of cars continued for as long as I have known him, with a Firebird (In fact we both had one in bronze before we met) then a couple of Shelby Mustangs, a Roush Mustang, many Escalades, a Thunderbird and a few Mercedes.

Doug loved music and the music in the 70s was great, Jim Croce, Steve Miller, Steely Dan, Chicago, James Gang, Stevie Wonder and Elton John. These and more blared from speakers most of the time. They continued to be played in our home as well for many years

In 1976 Doug moved with his family to San Diego, where he had a brief stint in the Navy, but after spending weeks in Balboa Naval Hospital with an infection, he was medically discharged. He went to Coleman College when it opened, in Computer Programming which was new at the time. He had several jobs including writing a program for Father Joe's Mission and working at the Salk Institute when Jonas Salk was still there. Then onto National University to get a degree in Business Administration.

In 1979, Doug accepted an offer to work for National Medical Computer Services. He is still friends with many of the people who worked here. Ron Hawkins was assigned to mentor him. This was the start of 5 decades of friendship, dominos, cribbage and collaboration.

Doug was a huge Charger fan and went to many games. During one of the boring games, Doug and Ron went to a boat show and bought a 17 ft Bayliner. Neither of them had any experience with owning or driving a boat. They spent weekends at Lake Elsinore and summer vacations at Lake Tullock in Northern California. Tents would be set up on the banks of the lake and the boat would go in the water. Everyone would water ski too. Dinners were usually what could be bought fresh from the roadside vendors.

Doug left National Medical Computer Services to create a Medical Billing application designed for medical offices. Eventually, he incorporated and that was the foundation for Computer Processing Unlimited, Inc. It took some time to sell and install the first system in Bismarck, North Dakota. That is when CPU became CPU Medical Management Systems. They installed dozens of these systems in San Diego.

In 1988, IBM announced the AS/400, a much more scalable platform that would allow their system to be sold to much larger clients. Luckily, Ron had the experience to modernize their software.

By May of 1989, CPU Medical Management Systems was doing quite well all over San Diego. IBM was quite happy, and they allowed CPU to do their User Group meeting at their La Jolla facilities. Customers and prospects alike were in the audience, and Doug was the only speaker.

In May of 1989, Cathy Paine was in the audience to check out his company for possible installation in the 3 outpatient X-ray offices she was managing. After watching him walk across the stage in a suit all day. Seeing his confidence and ability to talk for hours, she called him the next day to see if he would have lunch with her. Turns out, many of Doug's clients had offices across from Sharp Memorial Hospital where Cathy worked for 45 years. Doug and Cathy were Married on Feb 24, 1990. John, who was 4, walked Cathy up the aisle. Doug's dad stood at the front with my dad, who officiated the service. Ron and Darla, Cathy's sisters and Doug's brothers were part of the wedding party. A honeymoon in Maui, was the first of many trips there.

Mark, one of Doug's coworkers at National Medical, split off to create a trade magazine for computer programmers and managers called Midrange Computing. Ron and Doug wrote monthly articles for 5 years. IBM took notice and asked them to start speaking at COMMON, a user group for Midrange Users.

In 1994, Mark talked them into creating a collection of Tips and Techniques, and they published their first book. They chose a San Diego Chargers theme for their cover, with Chargers Blue and Gold! Mark sold thousands of these books. They had no idea that the market for the book was as large as it was. Doug and Ron wrote 7 books together; some were used in Computer schools.

During this time, two daughters, Rachel and Sarah, were added to the family. Rachel and Sarah, and our life revolved around Ta Kwon Do, scouts, school activities, and children's theater. Many nights Doug would go back to work after dinner to finish up an article, or change a disc, but he was always there for dinner. He was very committed to his family, and was a loving dad. When they were young he spent hours swinging them in the back yard, or swimming after work.

When the kids grew up and moved away, Doug and Cathy started traveling again and saw most of the European countries, Greece, Ireland, and Italy being the highlights and 3 days in St Petersburg were interesting.

Doug was an avid bowler. Mostly at Mira Mesa Lanes in San Diego, but he also competed in Nationals and Telco every year. One year Sarah got to go with him to Nationals as his partner. Doug also worked in theater, mostly as the photographer, but occasionally when they needed a man to play a role, he would do it. It was so fun to have the whole family on stage during those years.

On June 2, 2012, John married Ashley, which led to 3 grandchildren; Rylin, Brynn and Weston and Doug love it when they visited or we went to Lemoore.

Sarah and Brandon had moved to the east coast in November of 2016 and Rachel decided to join them in November of 2021. John and his family were in Central California, so we decided to relocate to Las Vegas in November 2021 where we found new friends and a great neighborhood!

Life slowed down a bit, but we still did some travel, went to the gym, played pickleball, cooked dinners, and played with our pups Roscoe and Bella.

Doug and Ron went to So-Fi to see the Chargers defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers in December of 2025. They spent the weekend playing their favorite games, talking football, and drinking their favorite bourbon. Unfortunately, Ron passed about a month later unexpectedly. Doug had a very hard time.

On May 1 a very large glioblastoma was removed from the right side of his brain, he was given 2-3 months to live. Doug had always been a Christian, but that day there was a change in him, realizing that he was blessed to have whatever time was given to him. We made the most of it with family and friends visiting him regularly. He was even allowed to come home, and we had some very good days together. All our kids and grandkids were able to visit a couple of times.

I am so happy I was with him when he passed away peacefully in an inpatient hospice at 6:09 am on July 18, 2026, 80 days after his surgery. He was welcomed into heaven by both his parents and both my parents, and many other friends and family.

Music was always being played or sung in our home and was a big part of the very fabric of our life. We believe in Jesus and heaven, which makes it easy to rest in the knowledge that WE KNOW we will see Doug again. "Where words fail, Music speaks". The song below was sung at Doug's Celebration of life. We hope these words speak to you and reminds you of the promises we have in Jesus.

Knowing What I Know about Heaven - Sung by Brandon Burks

I bet the trumpets played and the angels sang,

every sweet refrain of Amazing Grace.

And that Heaven's hands opened up the gate,

and the children danced when they saw your face.

As happy as they were to see you coming,

I was just as sad to have to watch you go.

Oh, but knowing what I know about Heaven,

believing that you're all the way home.

Knowing that you're somewhere better,

Is all I need to let you go.

I could hope that I could pray you back,

But why on earth would I do that?

When you're somewhere life and love never ends.

Oh, knowing what I know about Heaven.

Where every single voice makes a joyful noise,

how sweet the sound when the saints rejoice.

To every broken heart and every wounded soul,

new life begins on streets of gold.

With every tear that's raining here from my eyes,

I know the sun is shining where you are.

Oh, knowing what I know about Heaven,

believing that you're all the way home.

Knowing that you're somewhere better,

is all I need to let you go.

I could hope that I could pray you back,

but why on earth would I do that?

When you're somewhere life and love never ends.

Oh, knowing what I know about Heaven.

Doug is Survived by:

Spouse: Catherine Cain Pence

Children: John Cain and wife, Ashley Cain, Rachel Pence, Sarah Pence

Bonus Child: Brandon Burks

Grandchildren: Rylin Cain, Brynn Cain, Weston Cain

Doug was Cremated at Care Cremation and Burial in Las Vegas. Ashes were spread around the places he loved. His Celebration of Life was in San Diego at Mission Bay Park and Mira Mesa Bowling Alley.